Like promised, here are more details on the measure approved yesterday. The following is a description of the programs related to addressing the Iraqi displacement crisis and the funds approved by the Congress for those programs’ accounts:
Migration and Refugee Assistance (MRA): • The Department of State’s Migration and Refugee Assistance (MRA) account helps the United States meet its domestic and international obligations to protect and assist refugees and host communities. The two major line-items within MRA are overseas refugee assistance and U.S. refugee admissions. MRA funds for overseas assistance are used to support UN agencies, the ICRC, and international NGOs to provide protection and direct assistance to refugees. The Refugee Admissions portion of MRA provides funding to identify, admit, and provide initial reception and placement services for refugees admitted to the United States. Resettlement serves as a durable solution for individual refugees and demonstrates responsibility-sharing to encourage countries of “first asylum” to keep their doors open to refugees in need of protection. For fiscal years 2008 and 2009, Congress approved $680,500,000.
International Disaster Assistance Account (IDA): • IDA helps address the needs of a wide range of civilians displaced or otherwise affected by conflict or other disasters. Congress should ensure funding for this program to address urgent humanitarian needs inside Iraq. The funding will allow for increased support to non-governmental organizations assisting vulnerable Iraqis and for a robust U.S. response to the needs identified in the U.N. Consolidated Appeal for Iraq. For fiscal years 2008 and 2009, Congress approved $665,000,000.
Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance (ERMA): • ERMA is an account that the President may draw on at any time to meet “unexpected urgent refugee needs”. ERMA funds are used to respond to breaks in the food pipeline, unanticipated new emergencies or unforeseen escalations in existing crises. For fiscal year 2008, Congress approved $36,608,000.
Iraq Community Action Program (CAP): • CAP is a USAID program which is implemented by an alliance of U.S. based NGOs and is funded through the Economic Support Fund (ESF) account. This program works with Iraqi communities to identify their own needs and implement sustainable rehabilitation projects by promoting citizen-government engagement and local economic development. For fiscal year 2008, Congress approved $75,000,000. Marla Ruzicka Iraqi War Victims Fund: • The fund provides continued assistance to Iraqi civilians who suffer losses as a result of the military operations. For fiscal year 2008, Congress approved $5,000,000.
ADDITIONALLY, the Marla Ruzicka Iraqi War Victims Fund and the Community Action Program (CAP) were allocated $30,000,000 in unspecified initial funding for fiscal year 2009. Bringing the total funding of both programs to $110,000,000 for fiscal years 2008 and 2009.
Bilateral Assistance to help Iraqi refugees in Jordan: • Through the Economic Support Fund (ESF), Congress approved $150,000,000 for Jordan during fiscal year 2008. This amount is to be used to meet the needs of Iraqi refugees in Jordan.
You called for these accounts to be funded during your advocacy days and through your phone calls. We are pleased to see that your lawmakers listened to you and that our combined efforts have made an impact.
It is indeed an important step, but we still need to keep the vulnerable Iraqis along with their families in mind and we should help them in every way possible. Please take a minute to sign our humanitarian pledge (join the thousand people who have already signed) and in this holiday weekend, we invite your generous giving spirit to support EPIC’s work.
Yesterday, Congressional Democrats ended a nearly 5-month cold war with the Bush Administration by approving supplemental Iraq war funding absent a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal.
The anti-war netroots at Daily Kos and practically everywhere else on the internet are now in a tizzy, declaring "if the supplemental bill passes, it most probably means that Mister Bush has all the money he needs to continue this bloody disaster for the next 16 months." Even the New York Times is riddled with language about how the Dems "relented" and made a "wrenching reversal."
But as Erik noted in his recent blog, the media has a curious affinity for black-and-white half-truths, and for declaring "game over" in the third inning. Congressional leaders will have other, better opportunities to duke it out on a number of funding bills in coming months, including Department of Defense Appropriations. Furthermore, there's more to this emergency spending bill than the timetable issue.
For starters, this is the first bill that begins to address the urgent needs of the fastest growing refugee and internally displaced populations in the world. It provides funding for lifesaving humanitarian assistance and protection to help those displaced by the conflicts in Iraq and Darfur. Secondly, it restores funding for development NGOs that have successfully partnered with local Iraqi leaders to help them rebuild their war-torn communities. Third, the bill provides some of the assistance that Iraq desperately needs for an economic and political solution -- something that neither troop surges nor withdrawals are likely to produce alone.
No, we didn't get as much as we would have liked, but EPIC and our Iraq Peace and Development Working Group (IPDWG) allies lobbied hard and won $85 million above the President's request for Iraqi refugee/IDP assistance and restored $50 million of funding for USAID's Community Action Program (CAP) and the Marla Ruzicka War Victims Fund.
Even if you're among the "support our troops, bring them home" crowd and you buy the Daily Kos' 16-month-bloodbath prophecy, you ought to know this funding is crucial for protecting our troops. As long as they're over there, the best way we can help them is by stabilizing Iraq through political, civil and economic projects. Employed Iraqis with ownership of and interest in community projects, such as those funded by CAP and highlighted in our "Overlooked Successes" conference, aren't strapping bombs to their chests and going after Americans. And what you may not have heard is that these moderates do have an influence on those who are causing trouble - popular support is key to movements such as Moqtada al-Sadr's.
The sooner we get moving on economic, political and civil solutions, the less justification this Administration will have for maintaining or augmenting troop levels.
Also present in the approved bill are benchmarks. We're planning a series of blog entries here giving you details on each one, but for now suffice it to say we've been calling for benchmarks for years. Of course, benchmarks on U.S. progress rather than focusing entirely on the Iraqi side of the equation would have been nice. But you know how it is in Washington - baby steps, baby steps.
The bottom line is that U.S. troop levels are just one part, one question in the debate over Iraq's future. The media needs to be careful not to over-focus on that question at the expense of the needs of the Iraqi people.
Back in April, we told you about EPIC's partnership with the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC) and the legacy of CIVIC's founder, Marla Ruzicka. Marla was a great champion for innocent civilian victims of U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, advocating proper compensation for their families. Tragically, she was killed by a suicide bomber in 2005, at the age of 29.
Following her death, Congress established the Marla Ruzicka Iraqi War Victims Fund, giving money to small, community-based projects assisting families directly affected by U.S. and coalition actions. Meanwhile, CIVIC continues Marla's work, and we have teamed with them in promoting the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act (S.594). This act would prohibit the use of U.S.-made cluster bombs in civilian areas, where they cause untold devastation.
However, even with these steps forward, an article in today's New York Times entitled "Sometimes in War, You Can Put a Price on Life," by Jon Tracy, proves we still have a long way to go in protecting and compensating civilian victims of U.S. aggression.
Tracy, a military lawyer who spent 14 months working with Iraqis claiming various combat- and non-combat-related injuries, points to the shocking Pentagon failure to adequately compensate Iraqis for deaths and injuries clearly resulting from the wrongdoing of U.S. forces.
In 2005, 24 civilians were massacred in Haditha at the hands of U.S. troops, and their families received only about $1,500 each. Just last year, a teenage girl in Mahmudiya was raped and then murdered along with her family. Their relatives received nothing, despite two U.S. soldiers confessing to the crimes. (read EPIC's statement on this tragedy here.)
In contrast, consider that the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund awarded an average of $1.8 million per family of each victim. Do we really believe Iraqi lives are worth that much less than those of Americans?
What disturbs Tracy more than the meager amounts being offered is the fact that it is in the form of condolence payments rather than official compensation under the Foreign Claims Act. The latter acknowledges wrongdoing, while the former considers the incident an accident of war. "Imagine the feelings of the families...devastated because a foreign soldier has brutalized a loved one, and then the military grossly insults them by offering a token sum with no acknowledgment of the egregious wrongs committed."
Adding insult to injury in this way breeds even more resentment in the Middle East and further damages U.S. credibility abroad. We can and must do more to fulfill the legacy of Marla Ruzicka, and properly compensate and protect innocent Iraqi civilians.
I mentioned in a post last Thursday that today is the anniversary of Marla Ruzicka's death. Marla dedicated her life to ensuring compensation for the families of innocent victims of U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than once, she risked everything to gain a firsthand perspective on the impact of U.S. military operations abroad, traveling to the frontlines of active combat. But for Marla, the information she would bring back and the legislation it inspired were worth the risk. These risks that she so bravely faced eventually took her life, as she and her colleague Faiz Ali Salim were killed by a suicide bomber in 2005. Marla was 29 years old.
Though her life was cut tragically short, her legacy lives on through the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC), an organization founded by Marla herself. According to CIVIC Associate Marla Bertagnolli, "CIVIC started in 2001 when Marla Ruzicka traveled to Afghanistan and realized that the families of innocent victims of U.S. and coalition actions were not being helped financially by the U.S. She collected information and began working with Senator Leahy to get the funding to provide these victims with compensation. In 2003, she went to Iraq and brought back information to Leahy. Following her death in Iraq on April 16, 2005, Congress established the Marla Ruzicka Iraqi War Victims Fund. This fund gives money to small, community-based projects that help families who have been directly affected by U.S. and coalition actions."
CIVIC continues actively working toward smart and compassionate policies for war victims. "CIVIC is pushing for the military to create an effective compensation system that provides a larger condolence payment than the current $2,500 compensation," says Bertagnolli. "CIVIC is currently working with Senator Leahy on legislation to standardize payments to families harmed or caught in the cross-fire of U.S. military operations. A standardized system would ensure that the families of victims receive payments immediately after the death of their family member." To honor Marla’s legacy, EPIC has partnered with CIVIC to build public support for the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act (S.594). Introduced by Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA), S.594 seeks to limit one of the world's most indiscriminate and deadly weapons: cluster bombs. In addition to Sen. Feinstein, the bill has found support among the following 6 co-sponsors: Senators Patrick Leahy (VT), Bernie Sanders (VT), Edward Kennedy (MA), Sherrod Brown (OH), Maria Cantwell (WA), and Barbara Mikulski (MD). If your Senators are not among these cosponsors, please take action today to ask them to cosponsor the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act.
Peacebuilders,
